Polinski is the new solo project from Paul Wolinski of Sheffield’s finest instrumental post-rockers, 65daysofstatic. The small crowd gathered in Brixton’s Windmill already know it’s something worth getting excited about. The rest of you soon will too…

The impact Polinski’s vision has the potential to make is obvious from the outset here tonight; it only takes seconds for Wolinski to absorb the audience completely in his Morse world. It’s mostly the music itself – a converse fusion of lineated synth sounds and dilatory ebb and flow – that makes the impact but it does no harm that the protagonist himself looks like he’s saving the world. At moments he pumps his keyboard as if it were a computer controller, and his song a last defence against a swarm of apocalyptic soldiers.

How else, then, to describe Polinski’s music other than with similes and metaphors? The drum sounds click like triggers, the programmed refrains resonate like calls to arms, and despite the fact that there are no other live band members, Wolinski can still match Coldplay for a crescendo – on occasion making even more impact than Martin and co. thanks to the fact that his climaxes can catch you by surprise: there is a magical lack of formula underpinning Polinski’s appeal.

There are moments of real beauty too and the vocals aren’t conspicuous by their absence because the ‘sounds’ have voices of their own. And weaved into the fabric too, are some spare, almost techno, moments, as well as hints of The Terminator soundtrack which add an extra poignancy to proceedings.

Looking at Wolinski’s face, it’s obvious he knows, as well as everyone in the audience does, when he hits a particular high point. Be it when the bass thuds down like an anchor, or when a delicate piano part is corrupted into a chaotic composition that would make Skrillex proud, there’s a light in the artist’s eyes that shows he’s on top of the world. That feeling is wonderfully infectious.

Johnny K